Apparatus for manufacturing artificial silk



23, 1936. F; w. MATTINSON 2,945,531

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIAL SILK Original Filed Jan. 14, 1932 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 0W1 9M 111 w g INVENTOR .794011 fiW'red/Zailmsm ufie 23, 1936. F. w. MATTINSON APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIAL SILK Y Original Filed Jan. 14, 1932 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fume 1936' F. w. MATTINSON V 2,045,531

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIAL SILK Original Filed Jan. 14, 1932 I 47 Wm 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 June 23, 1936. w ms' N 2,045,531

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIAL SILK Original Filed Jan. 14, 1932 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 43v 41 40 4g 47 16 M11 4 M1 1 INVENTOR v H45 ATTORNEYS ifiune23, 1936. I F. w. MATTHNSON 2,045,531

' I APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIAL SILK Original Filed Jan. 14, 1932 6 Sheets-Sheet 5- IIIIII/l/I/l/ l I illm' 5 7 "MW Im mu A4 ATTORNEYS June 23, 1936- F; w. MATTINSON APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIAL SILK Original Filed Jan. 14, 1932 6 Sheets- Sheet 6 mmmw xllilllllull lllllllllIH HIHIHIHHIIHIIM,

K mm M mg mm ATTORNEYS Patented June 23, 1936 UNITED STATES APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING ARTIFICIALSILK Frank Wilfred Mattinson, Utica, N. Y., assignor to Skenandoa Rayon Corporation, Utica, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Original application January 14, 1932, Serial No.

586,553. Divided and this application September 27,1934, Serial No. 745,712 r g .1 Claim.

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 586,553, filed January 14th, 1932 for Method and apparatus for manufacturing artificial silk.

This invention relates to the manufacture of artificial silk, and more particularly to a novel method of manufacturing artificial silk or rayon thread having more uniform dyeing qualities, or dye aiiinity as it is sometimes called, than has heretofore been possible.

A major difiiculty which hasbeen encountered for many years in the manufacture of rayon thread or yarn has been that the finished thread cannot be made so as to have uniform dyeing qualities. Some yarn is more absorptive of dye than others, and even yarn from diiferent parts of the same yarn cake varies in dye aflinity. This necessarily results in undesirable variations in color or shade of the dyed thread, or of fabric produced therefrom. Many andrepeatedefforts have been made in the industry toovercome this trouble, but, so far as I know, no successful or practical way of doing so has been found'prior to my present invention. 7

I shall describe my invention more particularly with reference to the cake-or centrifugal spinning bucket method of spinning rayon from viscose, that being the industrial process to which I have applied my invention. It may be, however, that in proper cases my invention is capable of advantageous application to other processes of manufacturing artificial silk. V

I have discovered by-extended investigation and test that in manufacturing rayon thread or yarn from viscose by the centrifugal spinning bucket method of spinning, the principal cause of nonuniform dye affinity of the spun yarn is the variation in the tension applied to the yarn during spinning, due to decrease of centrifugal force as the yarn cake builds inwardly from the wall of the centrifugal spinning bucket (sometimes called the spinning pot) toward the axis of the bucket. By long and careful observation, I have found that the thread on the outside of a spun yarn cake, spun by this centrifugalspinning method, is sufficiently different in structure from the thread on the inside of the completed cake so that when the whole yarn cake is dyed the thread on the outside of the cake absorbs aless amount of dye and comes out a different shade of color. I have discovered that the more the yarn, is stretched during its manufacture the less will be its dye absorption, and consequently yarn from the outside of a spun'cake. dyes to a lighter shade than does yarn from the inside of the same cake.

Having discovered that the foregoing is a principal cause of the non-uniform dyeing qualities which have heretofore characterized substantially all viscose rayon made by the centrifugal spinning method,to the great detriment of the commercial value of the yarn, I have invented a method of overcoming this difficulty. Broadly stated, this method consists in making a progressive compensating adjustment or regulation, during the operation of spinning each yarn cake, which so controls the actual structure of the yarn, or the individual filaments of which it is composed, that it produces compensation for the non-uniform dyeing qualities which would otherwise result. I have thus succeeded in producing a spun yarn cake in which yarn or thread in all parts of the cake has substantially uniform dyeing properties, or, as it is sometimes technically expressed, a uniform dye affinity or fdye index.

I have invented several ways in which this control of the yarn structure by compensating adjustment or regulation can be effected during the spinning operation. By spinning operation in that sense I refer broadly to all the various operations which take place between the squirting of viscose filaments through the spinneret into the spinning bath and the time 'thes'pun cake is finally doffed from the spinning pot.

From a practical commercial standpoint, the

, method which I now prefer for producing the required regulation of the yarn structure, which method I shall presently describe in greater detail in connection with the accompanying drawings, consists in applying a progressivelyincreasing tension to the thread or yarn as it comes out of the spinning bath and moves towards the godet wheel. This increasing tension is so regulated that it produces a compensating change in the final structure of the thread, or the individual filaments thereof, which neutralizes the effect of the decreasing centrifugal pull exerted on the thread during the'spinningof each yarn cake, due to the decreasing inside radius of the yarn cake as it builds inwardly from the Wall of the spinning pot towards the axis of the pot. With constant distance that the thread travels through the spinning bath, constant angle of the thread at the sickleguide, uniform godet slip, and uniform spinning pot speed, there is still a difference in the actual structure of the thread on the inside and outside of each yarn cake, due to decreasing centrifugal pull on the thread as. the inside. radius of the cake decreases while the cake builds up in the spinning pot. According to what I now consider the preferred form of my invention, this decreasing centrifugal pull on the thread is neutralized or compensated by the increase in tension just described, thereby controlling the thread structure to impart uniform dyeing qualities to the yarn.

Another way in which I have found that the desired compensation can be introduced during the spinning operation, to control the yarn structure, is gradually to increase the speed of rotation of the spinning pot during the spinning of each cake, in sufficient amount to offset the decreasing weight of the thread due to its lessening free length and the decreasing centrifugal force due to the diminishing inside radius of the cake. In this case, the number of revolutions per second of the spinning pot being increased, it is desirable, also, in order to prevent increased twist of the thread, to make corresponding adjustments of the speed of other parts of the apparatus, tokeep their relation uniform. Thus the godet speed should be increased in relation to the pot speed in order to maintain uniformtwist; the speed of the viscose pump should be increased to maintain uniform denier; and the distance that the thread is immersed in the spinning bath should be increased in order to compensate for the increased speed of the yarn.

Still another way in which the desired control of the yarn structure can be accomplished tointroduce the compensation necessary to produce uniform dyeing quality, is gradually to increase the length of time that the thread is immersed in the spinning (coagulating) bath after it emerges from the spinneret. This, I have found, changes the structure of the individual filaments of the thread (yarn) in such a way that the thread tends to dye lighter in color as the time of immersion in the spinning bath is increased, thus neutralizing the increasing dye affinity due to the diminishing centrifugal pull during the spinning of each cake, that would otherwise cause the thread on the inside of the yarn cake to absorb more dye than the thread on the outside.

What I now consider to be the preferred commercial form of apparatus for carrying out my method is one which operates by control of the thread tension in the manner first described. I shall accordingly describe that form of apparatus, and how my method is performed by use of the same, in greater detail in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of an artificial silk spinning apparatus embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical elevation of the same, partly in section, and partly broken away;

Fig. '3 is a detailed View of a part of Fig. 2;

Figs. 4, 5, 6, '7 and 8 show details of mechanism for operating the variable tension guides. Fig. 4 is a plan view of this mechanism. Fig. 5 is a vertical section on line 5-5 of Fig. 5. Fig. 6 is a transverse section on line 6-6 of Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a horizontal section on line 'I-'I of Fig. 5. Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic plan view illustrating in detail the motion of a part of the mechanism;

Fig. 9 is a detailed elevation, partly in section of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the invention by progressively increasing the time that the yarn is immersed in the spinning bath,

and

Fig. 10 is a detailed elevation, partly in section, of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the invention by a combination of the first and third methods described above.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3,

I0 represents a spinning or coagulating bath contained in a suitable tank Illa. Taking the righthand spinning unit by way of example, the others being similar, the viscose enters through the pip-e II and flows to the spinneret I2 from which it is ejected into the spinning bath II] in the form of a plurality of filaments shown at I3. These filaments then pass over the fixed or sickle guide I4, then under the movable tension guide I5, which is carried and operated by the longitudinally movable bar I6, in the manner explained hereafter. The filaments pass next around the godet wheel or roller I7, and then pass down through the vertically reciprocating funnel guide I8, whence by the action of the rapidly rotating spinning pot or bucket I9 the filaments are spun-i. e. twistedinto yarn or thread, which by virtue of the centrifugal force exerted by the rapidly-rotating spinning bucket, winds up against the inside of the spinning bucket or pot, to form a yarn cake, 2!].

By more particular reference to Fig. 3 it will be seen that during the spinning of the yarn cake 20 the distance between the lower end I8a of the reciprocating funnel guide I8 and the point 2011 where the yarn is actually Wound into the yarn cake, decreases during the spinning of each yarn cake, due to the fact that the cake builds inwardly from the wall of the spinning pot I9 toward the funnel guide, which is at the axis of the pot. The centrifugal force towhich the filaments are subjected while they are being spun is consequently progressively reduced during the spinning of each yarn cake, due not only to the decreasing radius, causing decreasing centrifugal force, but also because the length, and consequently the weight, of the free yarn between the points I8a and 20a is continuously diminished.

To compensate for the progressively lessened tension applied to the yarn during the spinning of each cake, due to these-factors, I arrange the variable tension guide in the manner already described, and as shown in greater detail in Fig. 3.

At the beginning of the spinning operation the bar I6 with its movable tension guides I5--of which I shall now refer more particularly to the one shown in detail in Fig. 3is adjusted by means of a hand wheel (shown in Figs. 1, 4 and 5) so that the movable guide occupies the position indicated by the dotted lines at I5. There is then substantially no tension upon the filaments I3 (which then occupy the position indicated by the dotted lines at I3) due to the movable guide I5. At this period of the operation the centrifugal force applied to the yarn filaments by the rotation of the spinning pot is a maximum, because the yarn cake is then building up against the wall of the pot, and therefore has the maximum radius. As. the spinning progresses the bar- I6 is automatically moved to the right, by the mechanism provided for that purpose and to be described presently, bringing the movable guide from the position shown at I5 to that shown at I5. This causes a progressive increase in the tension applied to the filaments I3, both because the travel is longer and because a sharper angle is introduced therein. The distance between the positions I5 and I5, and the rate of motion, are so co-related with the rate of spinning that the increased tension produced by the movement of the guide I5 and bar I6 from their starting to their final position just compens'atesfor the decreased tension due to the lessening centrifugal force exerted by the spinning pot as the cakev builds inwardly, decreasing its radius. In this way -.a uniform tensioniand thread structure is maintained, and the resulting yarn has substantially uniform dyeing properties.

Referring now more particularly to Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, Fig. 4 shows a plan View of the mechanism for operating the movable bar l6 in the manner just described. 2| is a pulley adapted to be driven by a belt 22, from a suitable source of power, as shown at the lower right hand side of Fig. 2. The pulley 2| is mounted on a shaft 23 which operates a speed reduction gear box 24. The reduced speed gear 25 drives a train of gears 26, 21, 28 (see Fig. 6). The gears 26 and 2'! are carried on a common stud 29, adjustably mounted on a bracket 30 to allow for taking up any possible play, and to give an accurate mesh of the gears. Gear 28 is keyedat 28a to the main spindle 3| (see Fig. .5). The spindle 3| is threaded, and has mounted thereon an internally threaded sleeve 32, formed integrally with the bracket 32a on which is mounted the cam supporting frame 33. Frame 33 is provided at each side with a laterally extending guide rod 34, sliding in the bearings 35 of the main supporting frame or housing 36, so that as the spindle 3| is rotated, the cam frame 33 is moved parallel thereto on the guide rods 34. The main spindle shaft 3| is journaled in suitable bearings 31 in the same main supporting frame 36. Secured to the top of the cam frame 33 is a slotted cam plate 38 provided with a diagonally extending slot 39 (see Fig. '7). Within the slot 39 is arranged a cam roller 43 carrying a stud 4| which is secured to a sliding member 42 arranged to slide in a direction transverse to that of the motion of the cam plate 38. This transverse sliding member 42 slides in a fixed guiding block 43 (see Fig. 5) integral with the cover 44 of the main supporting frame 36. This transverse sliding member 42 is connected by a suitable linkage 41 (see Fig. 8) to the movable bar l6, as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

The operation of the mechanism is that as the pulley 2| is driven, the gear train 26, 21, and 28 is driven through the gear box 24, and rotates the main spindle 3|. By virtue of its threaded engagement with the sleeve 32 this rotation of the spindle 3| moves the entire cam assembly, including bracket 32a, cam frame 33, guide rods 34, and cam plate 38, from its left-hand position, shown in Fig. 5, toward the right, as shown by the full lines in Fig. 8. The operation of the cam plate 38 is then to force the cam roller backwardly, drawing with it the transversely sliding member 42 and thus operating the movable b'ar l6 in the manner described. In Fig. 8 the initial position of the cam plate and roller is shown in dotted lines and the final position, with the bar It retracted, is shown in the full lines.

In order to stop the operation of the drive mechanism when the cam has reached the limit of its travel, an automatic clutch 45 is provided as shown in detail in Fig. 5. This clutch is generally designated as 45, and consists of two memhere 46 and 41. Clutch member 46 is integral with the gear 28 and is the drive member of the clutch. Clutch member 47 is slidable on the reduced portion 3 la. of the spindle 3|, and is normally kept in engagement with the driving member 46 by means of the spring 48. Fork member 49 engages the collar portion of clutch member 41', as shown in Fig. 5, and is pinned to the shaft 55, which is slidably journaled in bearings 5| on the main frame 36. The shaft 50 has mounted on its other endra clutch control member 52 providediwith upturned fork elements 52a, between which is located a pivoted operating handle 53. Onthe lower face of the-threaded sleeve 32 .is mounted a pin 54 which is arranged to engage the side face 52b of the clutch control element 52 when the sleeve 32 hasattained its right-hand position on the spindle 3|. When the pin 54 engages the clutch control block 52, it moves the entire shaft 50 to the right, thus disengaging the two halves 46 and 41 of the clutch 45 and stopping the motion of the apparatus. On the righthand end of the spindle 3| is arranged a, hand wheel 55 for resetting the apparatus. When the apparatus is returned to its starting position, the clutch is automatically engaged and the action of the movable bar I6 begins again. The manual clutch control handle 53 provides means for disengaging the clutch 45 at any desired moment, without waiting for the automatic disengagement to take place.

When controlling the structure of the yarn in the second way described above, namely by increasing the speed of rotation of. the spinning pot l9 as the spinning progresses, the apparatus shown diagrammatically at the bottom of Fig. 2 may be employed for the purpose. 56 is the spindle (shown partly broken away) upon which the spinning pot I9 is mounted. It is arranged to be driven by means of an electric motor 51 which is supplied with current from a suitable source, as a power line 58. Branched across the line 58 is a rheostat consisting of a resistance 59 and slidable contact 63 by which the speed of the motor is controlled. If desired, similar provision may be made for controlling the speed of the other parts of the apparatus, such as the pumps for delivering the viscose, and the drive for the godet wheels I]. If these are all electrically driven, their speed may be controlled, if desired, by a rheostat (not shown, but similar to 5960) which varies all of their speeds simultaneously, in such a way that proper coordination of the apparatus is maintained.

Apparatus for controlling the structure of the yarn in the third way described above, namely'by increasing the time that the yarn is immersed in the spinning bath, is shown in detail in. Fig. 9. In this apparatus the movable bar I6 is arranged to travel from right to left, as indicated by the arrow, instead of travelling from left to right as shown in the preceding figures. To this end, the mechanism for moving the bar, which is shown in detail in Figs. 4 to 8 inclusive described above, is mounted at the left hand end of the bar It instead; of at the right, as in Fig. l, and draws the bar to the left instead of towards the right.

In this arrangement of apparatus, also, the fixed or sickle guides M are dispensed with and the yarn filaments l3 are carried directly from the spinneret 2 to the movable guide I5, the initial position of which is shown by the full lines. During the progress of spinning each yarn cake the bar |6 moves: to the left in such a way that the guide I5 is carried from its initial position, shown by the full lines, to the position shown by the dotted lines at l5. The yarn filaments being moved from their initial position, l3, to the position shown by the dotted lines at I3, the distance that the yarn filaments travel through the liquid of the spinning bath |fl after ejection from the spinneret I2 is correspondingly increased, as shown in the drawings.

Fig. 10 shows an apparatus for carrying out the 7 process of the invention by simultaneously and progressively increasing the tension applied to the thread and increasing the time of its immersion in the spinning bath. In this arrangement the sickle guide I4 is fixed, as in Fig. 3, but is placed above the movable bar I6 and movable guides IS. The direction of motion of the movable bar it is, in this case also, from right to left as indicated by the arrow. The initial position is shown in full lines and the final position of the guide 15 is shown by the dotted lines at 15; The yarn filaments 13 are threaded first around the left side of the movable guide It: and then under and around the right side of the fixed guide I4, as shown. During the motion of, the movable guide I 5 from its initial position i5 to its final position, Hi, the tension on the yarn I3 is increased by drawing the yarn into the position shown by the dotted lines, and the time of immersion of the yarn in the spinning bath is also increased, thus accomplishing progressive regulation of the yarn structure by a simultaneous application of the first and third methods described above.

.' '.The methods, and arrangements of apparatus, herein specifically illustrated and described are the best now known to me, but it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited to the methods and constructions herein specifically illustrated, but may be carried out in other wayswithout departing from its spirit.

I claim: 7

Apparatus for spinning artificial silk having high uniformity of dyeing properties, according to the centrifugal spinning bucket method, comprising, in combination, a spinneret for ejection of artificial silk filaments, a spinning bath for coagulating the filaments, a godet roll for the filaments, a centrifugal spinning bucket for spinning the filaments into a yarn cake, and means for progressively increasing the speed of rotation of the spinning bucket during the course of spinning each yarn cake to compensate for decreasing tension which would otherwise be applied to the yarn because of diminishing centrifugal pull upon the yarn as the cake is spun.,

FRANK WILFRED MATTISON. 

